Supply Chain Innovation

Reports

Over the course of the pilot program, the FLA has assessed and collected impactful data that has provided valuable information regarding the hazelnut supply chain and worker profiles in Turkey. In addition, in Fall 2017, the FLA commissioned research in three countries to gauge consumer purchasing behaviors and awareness of labor conditions in agricultural products.

FLA developed a comprehensive yet user-friendly and easy-to-use self-assessment tool for companies with agricultural supply chains to apply the USDA Guidelines as part of their social compliance, sustainability or human rights due diligence programs.

This report tells the story of Nestlé, the world's largest food and beverage company, and its two hazelnut suppliers in Turkey, Olam and Balsu, as they pilot-tested the United States Department of Agriculture Guidelines for Eliminating Child Labor and Forced Labor in Agricultural Supply Chains (USDA Guidelines) in Turkey’s hazelnut supply chain. This project was a partnership between the three companies and the Fair Labor Association (FLA), funded by the United States Department of Labor (USDOL).

Hazelnut production in Turkey takes place mostly in family-owned small- scale orchards, where traditional labor-intensive techniques remain in place and labor relations are informal. Especially during the harvest, laborers work long hours without social security benefits under severe conditions like extreme heat, on steep and slippery terrain, usually seven days a week.

Within the framework of the FLA's hazelnut project in Turkey, researchers profiled communities encompassed by the project to generate a basic understanding of the communities, to assess each community’s needs and resources, and to inform the project’s 2017 remediation plan.

To document company capacity at the outset of the FLA's cooperative agreement with the US Department of Labor to pilot test USDA social sustainability guidelines in Turkey, the project team conducted a baseline survey of Nestlé, Olam-Progıda, and Balsu to assess their programs for combating child and forced labor.

The worker demographic profiling report presented here was produced to support the work of the project “Partnership to Reduce Child Labor and Forced Labor in Imported Agricultural Products: Piloting the USDA Guidelines in the Hazelnut Supply Chain in Turkey,” conducted by the Fair Labor Association (FLA) as part of its cooperative agreement with the US Department of Labor.